Haneke's image design for the character Walter is sunny, courteous, caring for the weak, and popular among girls (for example, when skating, listening to others play the violin), so I prefer that the content of the film is not The struggle for power between the sexes, but Erika's deep-rooted morbid psychology, brought the two to extreme situations. This morbid psychology has something to do with her mother, as well as the attitude of men towards women in traditional society, the self-request of women in the process of emancipation, and so on. Erika is a product of the feminist struggle, a victim of female self-oppression. This film is about Erika finding a way out of this oppressive mentality, finding freedom and love.
A TV screen inserted in the middle of the mother-daughter fight at the beginning actually tells the theme of the film. Three doctors (two men and one woman) were suturing a man's mouth. The man doctor said, I watched the show, and the gentleman suggested that if the dog owner does not take care of the pet, he should be fined; the woman doctor went on to say that this man clearly It is to support women as a lower species (être inférieur), so male doctors begin to have a tendency to be violent, and female doctors begin to be violent towards male patients. Men do not and do not have to compete for the right to speak, but the long-standing habitual thinking has caused the intensification of the contradiction between the sexes, and the mutual oppression between women (the oppression of mothers against women, the competition between women) has also become more severe. The director uses Erika's relationship with Walter to allude to the gender relations of this era in German society.
- Erika and others
Erika is a piano teacher in her early 40s. A woman, said to be a woman, is not feminine. The bones are exquisite and beautiful, but the flesh is corrupt, which is seeping from the inside. She lived an inhuman and depressing life for a long time, which made her endocrine disorder, and age spots crept up on her face little by little. She doesn't seem to wear much make-up, but keeps herself clean, before meeting Walter, wrapping herself in a frigid, smooth-textured trench coat, wearing sharp leather gloves, tucking her hair up, and clipping broken hairpins with clips up, clean. She carries a leather bag, which is also simple leather and boxy. Her character is ruthless and repressive, and she is a perfect working machine. She lives with the piano and plays it meticulously. In her spare time, she is just wandering in this empty and cold city alone. He walked upright, with no signs of relaxation or softness. The voice was low and hard. The opening is accompanied by a powerful and indistinguishable voice of guidance from the piano. She speaks neatly and never says much. Lonely, without a close friend. Speak French, maybe with French ancestry, and live in Germany.
- The emergence and establishment of SM complex
Haneke does not repeat the childhood flashbacks like the original novel, showing how she gradually developed an SM complex. But in the B-line story, we get a glimpse. The character setting of her female student is her childhood self and her imaginary rival in love. To grow up, she must "beat" the schoolgirl. The living environment of the female student: She is always accompanied by her powerful mother. Her father is not present. She has a little talent in piano, but she practiced under the dual pressure of her mother and teacher. She cried at the possibility of the performance. What her mother gave her was not encouragement, but the coercion of "heard you, can't play". In the scene where the mother talks to the teacher, she is caught between two adult women, crying with her back to them. She was dissatisfied, but with aphasia, she couldn't fight against this kind of power, she could only cry, or develop to later, fight against this kind of power by a physiological reaction-diarrhea. (The male is here, but the image is gentle and affectionate) Erika scratched her hand with broken glass, which was a devastating blow to the mother, but it was a complete liberation for the female student, she laughed. Rarely at ease. It is conceivable that Erika was forced by her mother because of a little talent when she was a child, and her father was also a victim of this excessive and domineering "feminism", so she became a mental patient and left the family. Erika was forced to learn the piano by her mother - who said "no one can play better than you" - a statement in itself that is a pun on the unity of love and power. In the first scene of the film, she returned late, and her mother "raided" from the darkness outside the painting, arguing, and finally tore her newly bought feminine clothes together, and the two scuffled. In the only lines of the female student's mother, she repeatedly implied the similarity or even isomorphism between her and Erika's mother. She cried to Erika that her child's hand was stabbed, and said resentfully, "his hands should be chopped off", This is the same as what Erika's mother said at the beginning, "I beat your mother and should have cut off your hands". In the last scene, the schoolgirl's mother looked at Erika's mother's seat number and said "on est juste à
- The Construction, Development, and Destruction of Erika and Walter's Relationship
In this film, Haneke pays great attention to the use of enclosed spaces to express Erika's situation, which can also be used as a clue to help us interpret Erika's quest for "self-liberation (love)".
Walter's first appearance: Erika and his mother are in the elevator (cage), and Walter circles them; Walter is about to introduce himself, when interrupted by his aunt, he follows the women into the "room"; he talks about Berkner Opinion is fought back by Erika, who suppresses the other side (for self-preservation).
Walter's second appearance: broke into the rehearsal room (confined space), told Erika that he wanted to be her student, was treated coldly, and Erika was still protecting herself;
Walter's third appearance: Walter played the piano in the entrance exam, touching Erika, but Erika voted against Walter, resisting free emotions;
Walter's fourth appearance: Walter enters the classroom and confesses to Erika, she responds indifferently, Erika goes to the ice rink to see Walter (although Walter is "indoor" at this time, the storyboard concept is that Erika is stopped by the iron fence, and Walter In the field of freedom), expressing Erika's yearning for freedom;
Walter's fifth appearance: Erika and Walter watch the rehearsal at the same time, the female student is late and says she has diarrhea; Walter comforts the female student, the female student behaves abnormally, Erika is jealous, and the outburst of possessiveness leads to hatred of the female student;
Walter's sixth appearance: Go to the bathroom to find Erika, and the two kiss; (The spatial relationship here - Walter entered the women's toilet, which is the private space of women, his closing action was emphasized by turning back, and Erika at this time Not on the sink, but in a deeper semi-enclosed space, where Walter rolls over to open the door and kiss) Erika is not responding to this sexual invitation on an equal footing, the director makes the audience think she chooses to make Walter orgasm, which is Abstinence is even sacrificial, but at the end there is a reversal-Erika does not let Walter reach an orgasm, it is a resistance to normal love, or a declaration of power, Walter realizes the abnormal state of this love for the first time. But at the end, Walter happily ran out of the bathroom, and he was still able to get out;
Walter's seventh appearance: This appearance starts with Walter's hand playing the piano, which is the beginning of his alienation (the three students in the opening chapter all start with the hand playing the piano, which is to express Walter's alienation). For the first time, Walter is in an enclosed space, not inside. Here Erika scolded Walter for not playing the fierce Schubert, because "Schubert is ugly, you can't understand it with your appearance", Walter countered "Why do you keep destroying our harmony"; Erika wrote to Thaksin, Walter was happy , hoping to guide her to open her closed heart, but she was rejected. At the same time, Erika was guiding him into her most closed heart. This scene does not end with Walter stepping out of the "enclosed space", Erika dominates;
Walter's eighth appearance: Walter follows Erika home, all the way to Erika's bedroom, which is the most closed place for Erika. It is worth noting that Walter said "don't be afraid", Erika said "I'm not afraid, I want the same as you (this sentence was repeated later)", "Actually the basis of love is ridiculous", i.e. Erika's belief that men always enslave women is a direct expression of her masochistic psychology. Then there is "From now on, you give the order, you choose what I wear" (confirms the dialogue in the TV at the beginning of the whole film: women think that in men's minds, women are inferior species), Walter said "I swear I Loved you, but unfortunately you don't understand at all. Now you turn my stomach", leaving. (The picture of the Spanish horse galloping freely was shown on the TV after leaving, which is Erika's externalization of her desire for freedom. Then she abused her mother, saying that she loved her, that is, hating, and saying irony was Haneke's usual trick);
Walter's ninth appearance: This time, there is barbed wire in front of the rink, and Walter's heart begins to be imprisoned. Feeling insulted by Erika's vomiting, Erika runs to the white ice rink. At this time, Erika realized that she really longed to be loved equally and to be free, but found that the estrangement was too deep;
Walter's 10th appearance: Walter "rapes" Erika, Walter says, "You can't insult a man like that", "A little love doesn't die". When Erika wants to get love, she gets rough treatment from the other party;
Walter's 11th appearance: Walter greets Erika like a stranger, Erika doesn't get the normal love from her, she is completely desperate and stabs herself with a knife.
Attached is Haneke's own explanation of the film:
A: We have seen the proposition you value: in the face of the harshness of the material and rational world, the slow demise of all perceptual emotions...
Haneke: I don't think so. I think in today's world, the emotions are more intense, as shown in the film. "Intellectuals (educated people)" try to eradicate all possibilities in life that lead to chaos. But this is an illusion, because it just delays all the problems. We are always on the verge of abyss, but we now know better than ever how to cover up (the problem). This does not mean that we are wiser now than we were before, quite the contrary.
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